Deviant

Chapter 40

Rowen

For the last five months, I made sure to never stay in one spot longer than a couple of weeks, for fear that The Scourge’s hosts might find me. If I want true freedom from their shackles, then I have to keep moving. If they can’t find me, then they can’t hurt me. I’m not sure how long I’ll be on the run for, but until I find a safe port where I can breathe without fear, then I guess it will be a while.

But there is another reason why I don’t stay in one spot for too long.

During my travels, I’ve gone up and down the east coast, trying to find people who I can buy new identities from. As luck should have it, I found such a person in a bayou in New Orleans.

“Two thousand should cover it,” Jim says, with a toothpick hanging from the corner of his mouth.

“Great. Make that two passports, then.”

“Sure thing. I just need a picture of whoever the second one is for,” he replies from his rocking chair before clearing his throat and spitting out the foulness it produced to his porch floor.

Usually, I’d be annoyed at his aloofness and bad manners, but it actually works in my favor. If this side hustle of his is routine, and I’m just another paying customer, then hopefully, he’ll forget my face and that I was ever one of his clients.

“Both passports are for me,” I inform, dropping my photograph on his lap, next to the shotgun he has laid on top of it.

“Then the price is five thousand.”

“Shouldn’t it be four thousand if the price of just one is two?”

“The extra thousand is for my time. Take it or leave it,” he rebukes, pointing his gun to the swamp and pulling the trigger to scare off a crocodile.

When I don’t flinch at the sound, he pulls his straw hat back and gives me a toothless smile.

“You got steel in your veins or something, girlie?”

“Girlie,” I repeat with a halfhearted laugh, my mind instantly going to Joe. “I used to have a friend who called me that same nickname.”

“Yeah? This friend… is he the one looking for you?” he asks.

“Why would you think that anyone is looking for me?”

“Two passports… loads of cash to burn…. I’d say a pretty thing like you is on the run for something she’s done. Maybe you stole some cash from the wrong people. Am I close?”

“As close as you’ll ever get. Trust me.”

“I thought so.” He smiles, thinking he’s got me pegged. “Hand the cash over, and I’ll have your passports ready by tomorrow.”

“You’ll get half first and the other half after I get my papers.”

His sly grin lifts at the corners of his mouth.

“And here I thought you were just another pretty face. Glad to see you have some brains on you too, girlie.”

“I’ll be back tomorrow morning, at first light. They better be ready by then,” I warn as I hold the wad of cash in my hand. “Because if they’re not, and this is some con, you’ll find out that brains are not all that I have. I have a pretty bad temper too and an itchy trigger finger to match,” I add, showing him the gun holster hidden under my jacket.

I then hand him his money and walk back to the beat-up old truck I stole from a Target back in Florida.

“First light, Jim!” I shout before I slide behind the wheel.

“I heard you the first time,” he grumbles back, exiting his porch and rushing into his house to start working on my passports.

The thing about conducting illegal deals like getting forged passports, you have to deal with lowlifes like Jim all the time. And the only thing men like him respond to are intimidation and shows of strength. Luckily for me, I’m a better shot than I am at throwing knives, so having a gun is way more practical. I can thank my father for that since he would take me hunting with him every Thanksgiving. Of course, once Jim gets me my passports, my trusty gun will be dumped in the swamp with the rest of my belongings, leaving no trace that I was even in New Orleans.

I drive back to my cheap motel room that sits right out of the interstate, stopping only for food and gas. Once I’m back in my shitty room, I make sure to triple-check that I have everything ready for tomorrow’s trip.

Small backpack with two changes of clothes—check.

Burner phone—check.

A little over thirty thousand dollars—check.

Eight sets of passports, social security numbers and birth certificates—check.

With Jim’s additional two passports that makes ten.

I will need all those aliases to complete the next part of my plan. I have to have a backup plan, and two or three others, just in case something goes awry. I can’t be too careful.

As soon as Jim gives me the passports, I’ll throw my stuff in the swamp and drive the seven hours it takes to get to Atlanta. From there, I’ll fly over to the Caiman Islands and make the transfer of the hundred million dollars to the Swiss bank account I opened a few months ago. Once I see that the money is there, I’ll make a second transfer to a Singapore bank account under a different name and then transfer it again to one in Panama. When the money finally makes its way there, I’ll already be at the bank’s door, ready to cash it all out. I’ll hang low in South America for a while, and when a few months have passed where the name Rowen Hawthorne is just a name on paper and nothing else, I’ll fly to Europe and start a new life there.

But before peace and freedom are achieved, there are many moving parts that need to be perfectly executed, and I can’t drop the ball now. Not when I’m this close.

If Elias was here, I’m sure he’d be proud of me.

Harper and Abbie, too.

Even Nora.

It’s funny how all these months have passed, and sometimes I get the sensation that all of them are in the same room with me. Like they are all standing right next to me, cheering me on.

I don’t even have a picture of them.

Nothing.

All I have are my memories.

And on cold winter nights, those memories are the only things that keep me warm.

But then again, I guess that’s what life comes down to. It’s nothing but a string of memories woven together to paint the picture you want. If suffering and misery are the memories you cling to, then that’s all your life will amount to. I prefer to think how blessed I was in finding a group of people, that even under such vile conditions, showed me what true friendship looked like… showed me what love feels like.

Even though I feel Elias’s death the most, I wouldn’t change a single thing about our time together. If the pain I’m feeling is because I experienced such intense, unconditional love, then I’ll happily suffer for all eternity.

Because a love like that only comes once in a lifetime, and I got to experience it… with him.

No one will ever replace him in my heart.

Because Elias is irreplaceable.

He always was in my eyes. Even as a child, he fascinated me. There was always this magnet pulling me toward him, and though it took The Scourge to force me to give in, I’m glad I finally did.

I know he’s gone now.

Any hope I had that he survived the fall died a long time ago.

If Elias were alive, he would have found me by now.

He would have moved mountains to discover where I am.

No.

My Elias is dead.

Only my love for him remains.

I force a smile at the bank clerk as he checks his computer screen to verify my account. I’m beyond tired. For the last twelve hours I’ve been either on the road or in a plane just to get here. Of course, it would have been simpler for me to drive from New Orleans to Florida and fly from there to the Caiman Islands, but if anyone is following me, then I want to keep them guessing what my next move will be.

“Ah, here it is, Miss Hawthorne. And how could I be of service to you today?”

“I would like to close my account, but before I do so I would like you to transfer all my funds to this bank account?” I say politely as I pass him a paper with my Swiss bank account details on it.

“Very well.” He smiles, but I can tell his smile is as fake as mine. “May I ask who this account belongs to?”

“A friend,” I reply, keeping my answer vague.

“Lucky friend. It’s not every day we see someone transfer this amount of money to a friend’s account.”

“Then they need better friends.”

“Well put.” He frowns.

“Thank you,” I retort with a genuine smile on my face this time.

He vigorously taps his fingers on the keys of his keyboard, followed by handing me a few papers to sign. Once everything is done, he gets up from his seat and extends his hand for me to shake.

“I wish you all the best in your endeavors and hope to see you again, Miss Hawthorne. We hate losing such valuable clientele.”

You will not see me again.

No one will.

Once I leave this bank, Rowen Hawthorne is no more.

Just a ghost the boogeyman can no longer find.

But instead of telling him what’s really on my mind, I give his hand a shake and leave.

The moment I step out of the bank, I halt my step and take in a deep breath, enjoying the sunlight on my face as I say goodbye to the last remaining survivor of The Scourge.

Goodbye, Rowen.

I hope you find peace with the others.

And with that, I leave and head to the airport, not wanting to prolong my stay on this island a second longer than I need to, just in case someone is casing the joint looking for me.

Two hours later, I’m boarding a plane to Costa Rica as Miss Lisa Montgomery, and once we land, then I’ll take a bus to Panama to complete the rest of my well laid out plan.

I’m staring at the window from my seat, when I feel someone sit beside me. The sweet smell of sage and mint hit my senses, causing me to throw my head back to check who my traveling companion for the next few hours will be. I instantly frown when I find one of those frat guys you see in bad college movies sitting beside me. His baseball cap is tipped over his head like he’s trying to sleep, so I can’t get a good look at his face, though by the Hawaiian shorts and crude sexist t-shirt he’s wearing, I doubt I’m missing much. This is the type of assemble David would wear if he ever had a normal life outside of Blackwater Falls.

Gross.

He’s probably going to meet his friends for spring break mostly likely at Costa Rica.

If he only knew that younger men than him, die every year playing a game, then maybe he would look at his privilege differently and not take it for granted by getting boozed up for days on end with his boys. I turn my attention once again to the window, hating that I’ll have to spend the next five hours being tormented by the same cologne my true love once wore.

A few minutes after our flight takes off, I’m so on edge just by breathing in Elias’s scent, that I’m considering calling a flight attendant to ask if anyone is willing to switch seats with me.

“I thought I told you that if we ever got separated, to stay in one spot so I could come find you?” a familiar low timber says.

It can’t be.

“I’ve must have been following your ass across the east coast over five months now. You sure don’t make it easy on a guy to track you down.”

“Elias,” I whisper, not wanting to get my hopes up.

“Luckily for you,” he says before flicking the baseball cap off his face so I could get a good look at him this time. “There isn’t a corner in this world you could hide where I couldn’t find you.”

“ELIAS!” I shout throwing my arms around him, happy tears already falling from my face. “How… when… how?” I ask, never wanting to let go of him again.

“The how is easy.” He chuckles, running his nose up and down my neck. “Remember that time we found that one waterfall, just a day before we reached the mansion? Well if you remember correctly, I climbed all the way to the top, and there I saw behind me an even bigger waterfall a few miles away. I made a point to remember its location just in case I needed an escape plan in the future.”

“But it was so high… there was no way you could have survived,” I say leaning back from our embrace just so I can look at his face.

“Maybe love gave me wings and I flew down,” he jokes wiping my tears from my eyes. “Or maybe I didn’t make it at all, and this is my heaven after having suffered months in purgatory. Because as long as I’ve got you in my arms, then even heaven can’t compare.”

“They told you to kill me, didn’t they? That was the text you got that you didn’t want to show me, isn’t it?” I ask him the one question that has been plaguing me since that night.

“I rather they had asked me to rip my beating heart from my chest. It would have been an easier thing to do.”

“Oh, God, Elias! I’ve missed you so much. So much,” I cry before pressing my lips to his, needing his warmth to confirm that this is not a dream, that my love is actually here with me—alive and well.

He lets out a low groan and breaks our kiss a little too quickly from my liking. He then surprises me yet again by standing up from his seat and extending his hand for me to take.

“Now, Roe… by my count this flight is going to last about five hours or so. I say let’s find someplace quiet on this plane, so you can give me the proper hello I’ve been dreaming of since the night I died for you?”

With a smile as big as the love I have in my heart for this man, I slide my hand in his and let him lead the way.

Because for Elias… there is nowhere I wouldn’t go.

I would follow him anywhere.

Even to the ends of the earth.